WASCO, Calif. (KGET) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom made another visit to the Central Valley Tuesday, this time to celebrate what he called “significant progress” toward the completion of the High Speed Rail project.
Newsom was in Wasco where he, local leaders and railway workers said the new rail track could be laid as soon as this summer.
The project has faced funding issues and cuts from the Trump administration and criticism from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez and Bakersfield Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur joined Newsom in celebrating the next steps in the railway project.
“It is wonderful to be joined today by the real workers, the families that are enjoying mortgage paying wages as a result of this incredible evolution in transportation,” Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez said.
Bakersfield Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur celebrated the investments the high speed rail could one day provide for Central Valley.
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“Infrastructure offers us abundance,” she said. “And today this infrastructure is offering California that abundance. It’s an abundance that is going to be new energy to our Kern County, to our city of Bakersfield.”
The railways in the outskirts of Wasco will be used to help transport materials like steel and railing to other construction sites in the Central Valley. The High Speed Rail contains 800 miles of track with the goal of connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“I have your back and I want to keep coming back,” Newsom said. “This was a cornerstone of that commitment, and that’s why I’m grateful as well to the legislature broadly, because the key to this project was stabilizing the financial commitment.”
In Kern County, a secondary track will connect the city of Bakersfield with Merced. Voters approved $9 billion for the project back in 2008 and many have questioned if the project will ever meet its promises.
The federal government has pulled $4 billion in funding, but Newsom said that was the wrong decision.
“They talk about the backbone of America being in rural America, and yet they’re abandoning this project,” Newsom said. “They took $4 billion from you that the other administration legally appropriated.”
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The cut in funding is a setback for the project, but Newsom said a lot of progress has been made.
“Close to 60 large projects have been complete. The guideways — 80 miles — ready for track to be laid. We fully funded this first phase of 119 miles,” he said.
Newsom and other members of the High Speed Rail Authority said they plan on laying more track in the summer.
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